Edgy MD

Walkill Guance, meanwhile, took a while to find. Apperently, he started going by "Luis" and hung around ind ball until 2009. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=guance001lui He's probably still swinging somewhere.

Our entire nation is addicted to cheap snark.

Folk soul big shot-turned-reclusive Bill Withers looks back on and about the occasion of his seventieth birthday, in a film that becomes a meditation on aging, inspiration, depression, motivation, and authenticity.

Mets to hold COPD Awareness Night The New York Mets and the COPD Foundation will host Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Awareness Night at Citi Field, Saturday, August 20. You can support the cause by purchasing tickets for the 4:10 p.m. game at http://www.mets.com/copd and the will donate a portion of the tickets purchased online to the COPD Foundation to support research and awareness. The event will also honor longtime Mets executive, Bob Mandt, who passed away from COPD last October, and raise awareness for the disease. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (Ed: really?) and the only chronic disease growing in mortality. It affects approximately 24 million Americans but only 12 million are diagnosed. COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and adult onset (refractory) asthma. (Ed: Oh, OK.) Symptoms include breathlessness, wheezing, and chronic coughing. Visit http://www.copdfoundation.org or call 1-866-316-COPD (2673).

This needs some updating NOW!!!! TJ is 3-0 with a 1.12 ERA. And his name is Chism.

Case being reviewed today. http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/19/news/companies/madoff_mets/

Isn't declaring that somebody "...lives!" what you do when somebody dies, or in the case of Frodo, when they're fictional? Because Jerry Grote, last I checked, actually does live. (And I half think that Hodges learned that tobacco-spit thing from Grote.)

I read him as being a lot like Wigginton and Keppinger and (to some degree) Turner before him. He can't do much but hit, and while that's most important, and he will someday hit a lot for somebody, but has few of the peripheral skills to contribute to a winner while his team waits for his bat to fully mature at the big-league level. Because only with a fully mature bat is he getting the job done.

It's a theory, but in reviewing, it looks like testing didn't begin until toward the end of the season. He probably wouldn't be subject to the minor league tests anyway, still living under a big-league contract and the terms of the MLBPA CBA. I think the obvious reason for Perez's refusal is sufficient explanation.

There was something there. My dad picked me up and drove me home to Long Island once, and Gerry tagged along for the ride. Dad was a beat cop and picked up a lot of New York history along the way, and was occasionally prone to historic factoids. We passed the location of the hospital where Typhoid Mary spent the last decades of her life in quarantine, and dad told us Typhoid Mary's story. Jerry gave a shrug and said "Hmmm, we should have just given her all the money in the bank and put her on a plane to Russia."

Read a few chapters of it. Got the part where Hodges spit juice on his leg --- sort of his way of hazing the rookie flush in the pride of his spotless uniform. Didn't get to (or don't recall) anything about his tipping signs. I had a college rommate named Gerard Breen. Watched the World Series clincher with him.

Chrome bad.

The link takes me to the source code.

Jacobs was released shortly after the announcement. Ouch. You don't get that in the bigs.

Yeah, they just introduced testing in the high minor leagues in mid-2010. I'm guessing it won't be part of the big-league bouquet of tests until the next CBA. So a major league vet slumming at AAA is the most likely to get caught.

Bon chance, Transmonk.

Well, they only came up with a credible test for HGH with a 2008 breakthrough. I imagine it's only been implemented quite recently. A British rugby player was the first big fish netted by the test. That was last year.

The last two refuges of a fringey power hitter: signing with Colorado and taking the juice.

If you read Wally Backman's post-game statements recently, he's clearly falling in heart with Den Dekker.

He's a miracle of Metness. He has now been on the payroll of five separate big league organizations, but only appeared for one.

The National Anthem has certainly grown kinda stale. We're asked to sing. But when we do, folks look at us funny. And my wife can sing (if I can't really so much). The person at the mic, somewhere along the line, stopped being somebody who "leads us in the singing of our national anthem" and started being someone who is "performing our national anthem." But that's all part of growing toward a nation of watchers and not doers. But the star-spangled hats has wiped out a more-authentic and personal patriotic statement (and a far more deeply moving one) by the Flushing nine. And "God Bless America" imposed belief in the divine upon the growing and authentic patriotism in the country, and if we are honest about our faith in our country, our relation with the divine has to remain a private and personal choice. It was a very awkward thing to mix into the post-attack public life. And I kind of like the song.

Ceetar wrote: TransMonk wrote: metsguyinmichigan wrote: I like the Stars and Stripes caps, though I think they should stick with the team's colors. Certainly the red didn't look that good on the Mets. Call me crazy, but I don't mind the giant flags, the singing of "God Bless America" and the other patriotic celebrations. It's one thing when it is truly spontaneous and heartfelt, i.e. the wearing of the PD and FD hats after 9/11. But, IMO, forced and uniform "patriotism" is both ugly and fake. Some people (like me) feel patriotism in other, more personal and honest ways than the stale presentation that sporting events and other large gatherings try to give it. I think that's the point i'm trying to make in the other thread. Then I continue to ask you to read and consider to the total of what people are writing. Because the wonderful part about the Mets' gesture is that it wasn't forced or uniform or stale. It was unique to the team, it was spontaneous, and it bubbled up from the players, rather than being imposed on them by a mandate from on high.

I guess if you're still playing at 51, you have a continuing career. Tony Phillips, in the independent minors, goes mano a mano with fellow ex-Met Mike Marshall, also 51. [youtube:mcjbpuzu]uiW97eEpMtE[/youtube:mcjbpuzu] Marshall comes away filing battery charges, but good luck with that. He entered the field of play, approached Phillips in a fighter's posture, seemed to be leading with his left, and looks to have about eight inches and 50 pounds on him. Phillips landed the big blow, but you threw down first, Mike.

Ah, shit, how come I'm trying to make a living doing this.